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The number of ways to get people into space is at a record low right now, but some projects on the horizon are planning to get more people living in space in the not too distant future. Commercial space ventures are going to be shuttling (or capsule-ing, as the case may be) people to low earth orbit, and some other projects are aiming for more distant journeys. Here are just a few space exploration plans to keep an eye on if you still want to be an astronaut someday.

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The space race to get people to the moon and other destinations in our solar system has pretty much stalled. But a few billionaires and some really passionate hobbyists are trying to build rockets that will get people off our planet (with wildly varying success). Suborbital flights are difficult, but they're not really enough to get some serious space exploration going again. Still, we gotta start somewhere, right? Here are just a few projects that could get people into outer space on the cheap.

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Traveling to Mars is no simple feat, and it's much more difficult than a relatively short trip to the moon. The atmosphere on Mars is thinner than the Earth's, so it poses a significant threat to any vehicle that attempts to land on the planet. Plus, a trip to Mars could take months depending on how much fuel is used (or what kind of propulsion is used). Still, several projects are making the ambitious journey, and here are just a few examples of Martian missions.

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Not too long ago, becoming an astronaut was an amazing achievement that only a very few, rigorously selected and intensely trained pilots could ever hope to attain. But nowadays, while it's not exactly commonplace to be a space traveler, if you have enough disposable income, you could pay the Russian Space Agency for a ride or line up to buy a ticket on a commercial flight (to the "edge" of space). Over 500 people have been in space (from 36 different countries), and plenty more people will follow them. Here are just a few things you might want to know about space travel before you plan your next trip.

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Exploring the vastness of space isn't cheap, but it's becoming more accessible as the cost of satellites comes down slowly and data from telescopes is shared widely and freely. Citizen scientists can help advance astronomy in a variety of ways, donating time and/or money to projects that need more help. NASA's budget isn't exactly huge (compared to other parts of the national budget), so space scientists need all the help they can get. Here are just a few links on the wisdom of the crowd contributing to space exploration.

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The promise of large-scale human expansion into space has been around for a long time, and we've already passed countless fiction-proposed deadlines for such a development. Still, while we're not living in moon cities as many may have predicted, we're constantly taking unprecedented steps outwards. Here are just a few of the latest:

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Plenty of space geeks complain about the seemingly stalled progress in manned space missions, pointing out that plans to go back to the moon (or to Mars or to an asteroid) sound unlikely to happen within a Baby Boomer's lifetime. Sure, there might be some touristy flights to the near edge of space with Virgin Galactic, but really inspiring never-been-done-before space walks on another planet aren't coming any time soon (unless you count some suicide missions). Here are just a few links on the future of space transportation.

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Robot designs often steal from nature. Roboticists have created all kinds of insect-inspired bots and bots based on birds, lizards and mammals. It's easy to see how these robots fit into our world because animals with similar silhouettes are already everywhere. But it's not so intuitive that biomimicry should work in the low gravity environment of space. Without any alien life forms to cheat off, it looks like we're going to try to find out how some bio-inspired robots adapt to extraterrestrial locations.

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Discovering an alien life form would be quite an achievement, but we've been burned before by over-eager press releases that claimed to find evidence of life from beyond our planet. NASA might be more careful about making any announcements about life based on peculiar and potentially extra-terrestrial-based life, but NASA seemed to have forgotten about the extraordinary claims over ALH84001. Overall, though, it's probably good that NASA hasn't given up on searching for aliens, so here are a few links on looking for life from outer space.

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Manned missions to Mars have been in the works for decades, but we still haven't worked out all the details for getting humans to safely set foot on the red planet. Technology has clearly improved since the 1970s, so we're likely closer to solving the challenges of landing people on Mars than ever before. Some astronauts might accept a one-way ticket, but it might be nice for those adventurers to have a committed, long-term supply line so that their excursion lasts as long as possible. Here are just a few links that might be interesting for future astronauts.